Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the information. More confirmation that Hurricane Andrew caused a lot of escapes. Hurricane happened in 1992.
Population of Everglades pythons dramatically increased (or
was at least noticed) in 1995 or so, and it was determined that
they were breeding.

No doubt occasional big constrictors were found before the hurricane, but was there any evidence of a breeding population of
Burmese pythons? Burmese pythons have been available for many years. For those who still want to believe the "irresponsible python owner" theory, was it just coincidence the breeding population was discovered 3 years after a hurricane which caused localized escapes of breeding pairs of pythons?

Thanks,
Ed




>>I was in south Florida doing Hurrican Andrew recovery work and I do not remember the name of any specific large reptile facility that was damaged. There was lots of news about animals including reptiles from Miami Metrozoo escaping and also about snakes loose from smaller breeders and dealers south of Miami through the Homestead area and down to Key Largo. One or more of those breeders or dealers may have had large numbers of Burms. I visited Strictly Reptiles while I was in the area and they had no serious storm damage but they are located a little north of Miami. Perhaps a facility called Pet Farm was the big facility most seriously damaged. I visited there during the late 80s and I think they disapppeared from the reptile scene about the time of Hurricane Andrew. I do remember a couple of cases of Burmese and Reticulated Pythons being found in south Florida well before 1992. There have also been a couple breeding populations of Boa Constrictors going in south Florida for a long time. BTW, the most commonly seen reptile in central Florida these days is the introduced Brown Anole. I remember first seeing them in the keys in the 60s and thay have gradually spread northward all the way into south Georgia.

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